The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-11-05
Temper.
The Reason Why Some Husbands are
Quiet and Sedate.
Fortnightly Revieto,

foTmtghtty heUseU.
The admixture of different temperS
among the brothers and sisters of the
same family is notable fact due to
various causes which act in different
directions. 1t is best to consider them
before we proceed to collect evidence
and attempt its Interpretation. 1t is
clear enough and may be taken for
granted, that the tempers of progenitors
do not readily blend in the offspring,
but that some of the children take
mainly after one of them, some after
another, but with few threads as it
were, is various ancestral tempers woven
in, which manifest themselves. If no
other influences intervehed, the tenn
pers of the children in the same family
would On this account be almost as
varied as those of their ancestors, who
married at haphazard, so far as their
tempers are concerned; therefore the
numbers of good or bad children in
families would be regulated by the same
laws of chance that apply to gambling
table. But there are other influences
to be considered. There is a we'll
known tendency to family likeness
among brothers and sisters which is not
due to the blending of ancestral pecu-
liarities, but to the prepotence of one of
the progenitorS, who has stamped more
than his fair share of qualities upon the
children. 1t may also be due to a ia
miliar occurrence that deserves but has
not yet received a distinctive name
namely, where all the children are alike
and yet their common likeness can not
be traced to their progenitors. A new
variety has come into existence through
process not of individuals, but of
"cofraternaP' variation. The most
strongly naked family type that l have
personally met with arose Simultaneous
ly in the three brothers of family who
transmitted their peculiarities with un-
usual tenacity to numerous descendants
through at least two generations. Other
influences act in antagonism to the
foregoing; they are the events of do
meStic life, which instead of asSimila-
ting tempers tend to accentuate slight
differences in them. Thus if some
members of family are little sub
missive by nature, others who are nat
urally little domineering are tempted
to become more so. Then the acquir-
ed habit of dictation in these reacts
upon the others and makes them still
more submissive. In the collection I
made of histories of twins who were
closely alike, the statement was con-
stantly met with that one of the twins
was guided by the other. suppose
that after many childish struggles for
supremacy, each finally discovered his
own relative strength of character, and
thenceforth the stronger developed into
the leader, while the weaker content
edly subsidized into the position of being
led. Again. it is sometimes observed
that member of an easy going family
discovers that he or she may exercise
considerable power by adopting the
habit of being persistently disagreeable
whenever he or she does not get the
first and best of everything. Some
wives try to tyrannize over husbands
who are mild and sensitive, who hate
family scenes and dread the disgrace
attending them, by holding themselves
in readiness to fly into passion when.
ever their wishes are withstood. They
thus acquire habit of breaking OUT
to use term familiar to the wardens
of female prisons and lunatic asylums,
and though their relatives and connec-
tions would describe their tempers by
severe epithets, yet if they had married
masterful husbands their characters
might have developed more favorably.